Stabilized Whipped Cream Icing: Perfect for Spring!

Spring is here and it’s time to put away the heavy comfort food recipes and bring out the lighter, fresher, more colorful ones. A Spring icing I love to make, which complements any cake, is stabilized whipped cream icing. Pair with strawberries and you’ve got the perfect start of a strawberry shortcake!

Whipped Cream vs. Stabilized Whipped Cream

Whipped cream is so easy to make, and not to mention, insanely delicious. It has the perfect mouthfeel, it’s fluffy, silky smooth, creamy and subtly sweet. Being so versatile, it’s a great accompaniment to many desserts, and it’s just a few simple ingredients. Heavy cream and a bit of sugar! It becomes runny after a few hours and starts to separate making this way of preparation hard to decorate cakes with. It’s not a pretty picture. One ingredient, though, can solve this issue. Gelatin!

Gelatin stabilizes the whipped cream keeping it firm so it doesn’t “fall” or deflate. It will hold its shape beautifully and will keep looking gorgeous for days (if it lasts that long without getting eaten)! Use it as you would normal whipped cream, but if you want to make a pumpkin pie gorgeous a few days ahead or ice some cupcakes, it would be in your best interest to stabilize. Although it does lend itself to any dessert, I do however, use it as an icing 99% of the time, hence the name!

It’s not just for cakes though. It’s a great versatile, extremely delicious topping. Being insanely creamy, silky smooth, extra fluffy, with a subtle sweetness, it’s no wonder this icing is always in high demand. It’s delicate, yet sturdy enough to frost a cake. It can be flavored any which way as well. You might be asking, do I really need whipped cream stabilized?

The answer is yes and no. It really depends on your application.

Regular whipped cream is great for immediate use because it tends to melt and deflate rather quickly. It will also weep a bit, but when it’s stabilized, you can avoid all of these issues. Holding its shape beautifully, it can easily be piped making gorgeous designs.

It requires a minimal amount of ingredients and just a few minutes of your time. It really is a cinch to make and will dress up your sweet treats gorgeously with long lasting permanence.

Let’s Make Stabilized Whipped Cream Icing

Step 1: First things first, put your bowl and whisk into the freezer to cool. This will create a fluffier whipped cream.

Step 2: Bloom your gelatin in water. I like to heat it in the microwave for about 10 seconds to melt the gelatin completely.

Step 3: Take your bowl and whisk out of the freezer and pour heavy cream into the bowl along with powdered sugar, and vanilla. Slowly start whipping, bringing it to soft peaks. When you take the whisk out, the peaks will fall and will not hold its shape. At this point, start to drizzle in the gelatin while whisking.

Step 4: Whip on medium speed until stiff peaks form. (When you take the whip out of the cream, peaks will form and hold their shape). Watch closely. Once it’s over whipped, it can’t be saved.

Step 5: Use immediately or store in a tightly covered container for up to 3 days.

Ingredients

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, bloom the gelatin with the water. Heat for about 10 sec in the microwave to melt. Set aside briefly.

2. In a mixing bowl, add heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Whip on medium speed until soft peaks form. At this point continue to whip while streaming in the gelatin.

3. Continue on medium speed and whip until stiff peaks form.

4. Immediately use or store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Enjoy!!!

Uses

There are a plethora of ways you can use this stabilized whipped cream. Use on pies, cheesecakes, cookies, brownies, jello, pudding…etc. I prefer to ice cakes with it as I use it most. It’s great for ice cream cakes, strawberry short cake, chocolate cake, but being so neutral, it really can complement any cake. That being said, it can be flavored any way you’d like.

9 Replies to “Stabilized Whipped Cream Icing: Perfect for Spring!”

Have tried this twice; had to trash since cream was full of globs of hardened gelatin…..what am I doing wrong? Have chilled bowl & cream, the recipe I used said to make soft peaks before adding bloomed, microwaved, & cooled to room temp gelatin…..gelatin still became little grey (disgusting!) globs. If I am reading it correctly, you add gelatin as you first start to mix the cream. Is that correct? Have you ever had the gelatin harden into globs? I would love to be able to get this right, since I am the cream pie maker for family occasions and would like to have them last more than one day! I also tried using vanilla pudding mix, but did not find that satisfactory at all! I would appreciate any help/clarification you can give! Thanks in advance!

I believe you heat the gelatin and water for 10 seconds in the microwave first, but then set it aside while you work with the other ingredients.
Then you add the chilled Heavy Cream, Powdered Sugar and Vanilla Extract together and whip it on medium speed until the “soft peaks” form…..continue to whip, but now add the gelatin mix gradually to the mixture until the “stiff peaks” form.

I have read several times to ‘temper’ the gelatin first by adding a couple tablespoons of the cream to the gelatin, to cool the gelatin down, Only then , toward end of whipping add the gelatin. I kept hearing that skipping this step results in globs in the cream which you have described